Trine has been one of my favorite game franchises ever since I played the first one five years ago. Trine 2 is one of my favorite games, with some of the best fantasy music I’ve ever listened to.

So when I first heard that a Trine 3 was in the works several months ago, I jumped for joy, thinking that there would be an even more epic Trine adventure. When the public beta was released for play, I bought it and started playing it right away.

I was blown away with the new 3D gameplay, which was so different from the 2D platformers of both 1 and 2. But since it was a beta, of course it had its share of bugs and glitches, and even missing some sound clips. I just brushed this off as a beta, and patiently waited for the full release. Then, several months later, the full release was announced. A couple of weeks after that, it was actually released. I started playing it straight away.

One of the first things I noticed was the new campaign “board game” level selector, where you could pick which level you wanted to do. A little later, after playing some of the campaign, I noticed two things. First, there was no skill-leveling system, like in the first two games. I always liked the skills you could acquire. They gave you some really cool weapon accessories, or even brand new weapons.

The second thing I noticed was, the campaign only seemed to have eight levels in it, which scared me. I thought, “A game with only eight levels? How can they hope or even manage to tell a good story in that short a game?” When I finally got to the final level, it was a very short, very easy “final boss,” and after a cliffhanger cutscene, the credits rolled.

I was taken aback. How could the developers release such a short game, and then end in a cliffhanger? I started to get angry, because after paying for the game, and waiting all those months for the release, I was left in the dark.

A few days after release, though, a game reviewer blog called “Rock, Paper, Shotgun” had an interview with the developers of Trine. In the interview the developers said the reason the game was so short was because of two things. 1: They had planned to release the game in different parts, either as DLC add-ons, or even more full releases. 2: They had flat run out of money. Since they are a small independent company, they didn’t have enough funding to finish the game. This shed some light on why the game is what it is.

Now, let me get to the pros and cons of Trine 3.

Pros: The world is colorful, stunning, and downright beautiful. Trine will always have an amazing art style. The gameplay is fun, and pretty easy to master. The soundtrack is again, amazing, just like every other Trine soundtrack.

Cons: The puzzles are way too easy, the 3D gameplay element just takes the effort out of most of the puzzles. The game right now costs $21.99 for only 8 levels, plus some bonus levels.

Would I recommend buying this game? Let me put it this way, if you like the Trine trilogy, or even how it looks, show the developers some support by buying their games. If you don’t want to spend the money for such a short game, I completely understand.

I still strongly recommend buying Trine 1 and 2. Steam links are below: